New Stuff! ~ Now What?

Soooo, anybody out there get some snazzy new camera equipment for Christmas?
How 'bout some new editing software?


Check out my post over at TexasChicksBlogsandPics to see why this button...

...could be your most used feature in 2010!

Anatomy of...That Girl

I love this picture of That Girl.

I love the hair...the expression...everything about it:)  She was such a dream to work with too and she was so cooperative for me, which isn't always the case with 3 year olds!  


So as soon as the shoot is over I rush home, download my pictures and open this one first thing....
...and I....just...stare....at it.  


I'm blank.  I've got nothin.  I'm staring at this fabulous photograph that I'm dying to "mess" with and I can't decide what to do.  Has that ever happened to you?  Sometimes there's just too many options...



So I closed the picture and actually ended up editing this picture last!  Although I still couldn't decide exactly which direction to go so I ended up doing a few different edits.


I started off very dramatic. I know, you're shocked.  Me, dramatic??


I forgot to write down anything for this one but it was really just some basic steps:
1.  close-up crop
2.  dark black & white conversion
3.  Lustre b&w texture from Kaleidoscope


Here's what I got and I think it went really good with her expression:

Now that I'd done a horizontal crop I decided to do another one more "traditional" edit and keep some of the color and show the entire pretty little face.


1.  I softened the skin in Coffeeshop Powder Room 2 then ran Erin's Defog at "Pretty Foggy"
2.  I added Sheer Gold at 67% from Kaleidoscope
     I added Worn/Scratched from Shadowhouse Creations (I *think* that's where I got it) at 100% 
     then I added a layer mask and erased part of it off her face
Here's my layers palette:

3.  I ran the Coffeeshop action Johnna's Tea Party w/contrast boost at 81% then flattened my image.

4.  I added Dream Sequence V texture from Kaleidoscope then I lassoed the face and part of her hair to 

     blur the texture but keep the color enhancement.  If you haven't used that technique before you can 

     read the details here .

    Here's what my photo looked like with the face/hair lassoed:

 

5.  I reduced the opacity of the Dream Sequence layer to 67% and here's my finished portrait.  

 

I still wanted to see what else I could do though so I ran the Irish Breakfast Tea action on the above photo for a more "white" version of the black & white I had done.  Here's a 2nd option:

And finally, because I have major editing issues, I had to do...just...one...more and played around with my new NicholeV textures to create this photo:

Check back next week for the complete Anatomy of that edit.  I just won some NicholeV textures so I'm wanting to play with them some more and then do a whole post dedicated to my new goodies:)

I usually have a pretty good idea of where I want to go with a photo from the second I see it thru my lens, but this one just really stumped me.  I still haven't decided if any of these edits are my "favorite".  I'm thinking I'll be doing a hundred different things to this one before I'm finally satisfied.

What do you think?  Are any of these your favorites or maybe you've got a great suggestion for me?  Leave a comment and tell me what's on your mind!

Anatomy of...RainDog's Grand Canyon

I rarely photograph or edit landscape shots.  Honestly I just pretty much stink at anything but people shots.
This fact is kind of ironic considering we've owned our own landscape business for 10 years!


But...when my bestest bud RainDog was showing me pics from her trip to the Grand Canyon, I couldn't help myself...my uncontrollable obsession to mess with every photo I see completely took over!
I ripped the memory card straight from her camera and started downloading them right into my photoshop elements.


So in the spirit of the New Year, I'm going to share with you my attempt to try something new and edit some landscape pics that were taken by RainDog {photographer extraordinaire}!


Here's the first original:

There's no mistaking the beauty and awe of this photo and place...but those annoying tourists are messing it all up!


So I used my handy-dandy Clone Stamp and stamped them right out of the picture!  Then I did a little cropping and some levels adjustment.  I also sharpened just a little using Erin's Sharpen Powerhouse . Here's what I got with those basic edits:

Better already!  Then I decided to have some fun and go for the "funky cool postcard" look.

You guessed it...I added some textures:

Marsh 2 @62% - Kaleidoscope Gallery Collection

Vintage cool - FloraBella Textures 1

Reverie warm - FloraBella Textures 1

Ethereal warm - FloraBella Textures 1

I added layer masks to each layer and erased with low opacity black brushes primarily the middle sections, leaving the edges more dramatic.   Here's my layers palette showing each layer:

I love how the Marsh texture really added the blue to the sky.  I know I could have done that manually in elements but I was way too lazy to try it ~ the texture did the work for me!  Here's my final:

Here's a few more that I played around with...RainDog decided to get really funky and took this cool, artsy pic.  I just love cool artsy stuff:)

Again, I did some small Levels adjustments and ran Sharpen Powershouse and brightened it up just a little.  

Then I ran the Coffeeshop Orton action and added the Patina cool texture from FloraBella Textures 1.

And finally I grabbed this shot of a neat peak...I'm just in awe of how beautiful this is...

I ran the basic Levels and did some extreme sharpening then ran Coffeeshop Color Tints action and selected Vintage Blue option.  This is pretty dramatic but I wasn't exactly going for the realistic look!

So there you have it. I've bared my first attempts at landscape edits to the cyber world!  

Let this be encouragement to you to explore outside of your comfort zones every now and then...you just may surprise yourself at what you can achieve!

Thanks RainDog...I'll leave this shot from the Hoover Dam for YOU to edit!